Oklahoma's Chiefs of Public Instruction 1890-2015: The Position, The Politics, and The Public Servants (Superintendents)

The state superintendent of public instruction functions as the top education official in Oklahoma's executive government. Seven appointees served in the territorial period and eleven were elected from the beginning of statehood to 2015. Who were these people, what did they accomplish, and how have the legal eligibility criteria (both facilitative and hindering), the requirements, and the expectations of the position evolved? The book examines the political nature of the office and the 28 election cycles: contestants, expenditures, campaign methods, votes, etc. One chapter is devoted to the federal government's supervision of tribal schools in Indian Territory from 1899 to 1910 and another to the struggle by women to achieve equity in education leadership positions: principalships; county, local district, and career tech superintendencies; school boards; State Board of Education; and college presidencies. Each Superintendent's tenure (appointed or elected) is described and analyzed in a separate chapter. Included in the extensive appendix are multiple tables of election results, campaign expenditures, student enrollment and numbers of districts, and summaries of commissions and boards on which the Superintendent has served over the 125-year timeframe of the book. The reader may be surprised at the frequent recurrence of certain problems and issues and the frustration of the insufficient legislative will to provide long-term solutions. In this election year this 444 page book is apropos to aiding one to be a more informed voter